War Creates Its Own Monsters

Read Time:5 Minute, 46 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Trench of the Damned
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Genre: Horror, War
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 12m
Directors: Mark Murtha, Nic Studer
Writer: Mark Murtha
Cast: Daniel Griesheimer, Motti Ken, Mark Murtha, Sean Worthen, Landon Ringler, Eddie Schauwecker, Owen Simcox
Where to Watch: TBD

RAVING REVIEW: What type of horror/war film can you make in just twelve minutes? Well, you’d be shocked! The first warning comes through the fog. It isn’t a clear sighting or sudden attack, but a sound traveling across the battlefield with no understanding of where, or what it came from. The soldiers listening from their trench can’t identify it, and the darkness refuses to surrender an answer. TRENCH OF THE DAMNED understands that the unseen can be more frightening than an immediate confrontation, using the uncertainty of No Man’s Land to turn a temporary ceasefire into twelve tightly controlled minutes of dread.

The story takes place on Christmas Eve 1944 in northern France, where American soldiers Burke and Kincaid wait inside a trench during a rare pause in the fighting. The quiet should bring relief. Instead, it makes every noise more noticeable and every shadow harder to dismiss. A battlefield designed for gunfire becomes even more unnerving once the guns stop, leaving the men to wonder what may be moving ahead of them.

Writer and director Mark Murtha wastes little time establishing that the German position holds something worse than another group of armed soldiers. A brief look behind enemy lines introduces Dr. Wolff, an officer involved with an experiment whose purpose remains deliberately vague. The film gives enough information to understand that a human life has been altered into a weapon, then leaves the exact nature of the procedure, its intended use, and the full extent of its results unanswered.

That restraint benefits the short. TRENCH OF THE DAMNED doesn’t interrupt its tension to explain a larger program or provide a detailed history of the creature. Murtha concentrates on the immediate experience of Burke and Kincaid, two exhausted men whose understanding of the danger develops only seconds ahead of the audience. They know something has entered the battlefield. They don’t know what it is, what it can withstand, or whether the trench provides any protection.

Daniel Griesheimer and Motti Ken establish the soldiers’ different temperaments without requiring lengthy introductions. Griesheimer gives Burke a guarded, uneasy presence, while Ken allows Kincaid’s concern to emerge more in our face. Their exchanges sound like men attempting to keep one another focused without admitting how badly the silence has unsettled them. Neither performance calls unnecessary attention to itself, which helps the historical setting feel less staged around two actors waiting for the horror to begin.

The limited production resources are most apparent in the restricted locations, but the confinement becomes an advantage. Thomas Angeletti’s cinematography rarely gives viewers a complete view of the surrounding battlefield. Faces emerge from the shadows, the edges of the trench disappear into darkness, and the fog turns open space into an unreadable wall. The characters could theoretically run in several directions, yet the visual design makes every direction appear equally dangerous.

Murtha and the production team also show considerable discipline with the creature. Sean Worthen’s Experiment isn’t concealed so much that the eventual reveal feels evasive, nor is it displayed long enough for the makeup to lose its effect. The damaged skin, irregular movement, and unnatural posture suggest a body that has been broken and forced into a use that it doesn’t understand. Worthen’s performance gives the figure a painful quality beneath its aggression, creating the impression that the creature may be both an attacker and another victim of the German operation.

The design avoids turning the Experiment into an oversized action adversary. It appears human enough to see what it may once have been, but not human enough to inspire any expectation that Burke and Kincaid can reason with it. That boundary gives the creature more weight than a regular monster. The men aren’t just facing something unleashed by the enemy. They’re confronting evidence of how thoroughly war can strip a person of identity and reduce a body to its usefulness.

TRENCH OF THE DAMNED does carry a few signs of its proof-of-concept ambitions. Dr. Wolff is presented in rather basic terms, functioning more as the face of Nazi experimentation than a developed character. Mark Murtha commits to the officer’s cruelty, but the limited runtime leaves Wolff closer to an archetype than a convincing military figure. The German side of the story also introduces questions the film has no intention of resolving, making the ending feel like the opening act of a larger project rather than a full narrative.

Murtha’s affection for older creature features and war-horror combinations is visible throughout the short, although TRENCH OF THE DAMNED doesn’t rely on direct imitation. Its familiar ingredients are arranged with enough care to produce an identity of their own, with the practical makeup, darkness, controlled glimpses, and isolated trench favoring physical filmmaking over effects-driven spectacle. Nothing appears larger than the production can support.

TRENCH OF THE DAMNED leaves the battlefield before revealing how far the nightmare extends. That choice creates frustration only because the short has made the threat worth following. Twelve minutes are enough for Burke and Kincaid’s Christmas Eve ceasefire to become a fight against something no soldier was trained to face. The final impression isn’t simply that a monster has crossed No Man’s Land. It’s that the darkness may contain further evidence of what people have already done to one another.

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